Tutorials, Training & Tips

Talking about scaffolding makes us think about building construction support. The term scaffolding was also admitted by Rails as a way of helping developers build an application faster. In Rails, developers enjoy the privilege of having a temporary code to build a demo of the application. This code is not built for long time use, but just enough to support the system for a demo. Some says it is a waste of time but when you take a look at it, it is actually a good thing.

Java based frameworks for Ajax development are everywhere. Each of them provides a slightly different technique catering to the skills of some Java developers. But if you have tried developing an application or creating a website using Google Web Toolkit or GWT, the gist of the idea is basically there. After all, GWT is practically the leader in Java frameworks that aims in developing Ajax based websites. GWT literally translates your Java coding into JavaScript

Here is another server-side framework for Ajax that has been developed for sometime now. This framework was last updated November 2005 but still holds great relevance in building Ajax based websites until today. Why? Because among the many server-side frameworks out there, few of them actually caters to PHP and XOAD is a rare few that has been proven to work for many years now. XOAD used to be called NAJAX. With the changed name, the framework came out with better functionality.

There are frameworks you can use today that comes in as a lightweight yet highly efficient Ajax based framework. However, once you have started using this particular framework things might not be as powerful as they are. They are able to solve your cross browser problems but eventually some functions are a little bit harder to implement. In the end, you end up developing an Ajax based widget instead of a full blown application. Its quiet frustrating since most of the

A regular website could easily cache the page�s information. The whole webpage is saved in the temporary folder so that it could be accessed faster the next time user visits the particular page. Unfortunately, this concept is only applied to HTML and other websites where the whole webpage is refreshed whenever something new is added. Ajax on the other hand, refreshes only part of the page so the natural caching behavior is not applied as it does not detect any general changes

Any business transactions who want nothing more than security, speed and accuracy of application use SOAP for information transportation between applications. Using HTTP, developers are able to use the internet and more specifically, the browsers to ensure that the application and information transfer will never require more than a stable internet connection. Based on current technologies today, SOAP web services is stronger than ever because of the advantages it ensures. The development of Ajax development techniques made it even better for SOAP web based services. SOAP uses XML for data transfer which is a very smart choice. As a universal data mark-up XML could practically be integrated to any browser with the full security you can expect from any mark-up protocol.

The back button and behavior is one of the biggest challenges to any developer. In simple HTML pages, the back button preserves the last state of the website and even the things you have written there. Unfortunately, this reality is not possible in Ajax. Developers have to toil hard and rough so that the last state of the website is preserved. In a regular setting, the whole webpage reloads whenever the back button is pressed. Some may say back button is not necessary anymore

Developing an Ajax based application with minimal JavaScript coding is possible with the use of VS 2005, ASP.NET and a simple but powerful library called Anthem.NET. This open source library might not be popular but it has been given a pretty good ranking as it provides any developer the ability to build an Ajax based website without using too much Ajax. As you may have already noticed, it uses a lot of frameworks and software development tools to compensate with the minimal use of JavaScript. To use Anthem.NET you need to fire it up first in ASP.NET. Basically, you will just have to use the libraries DLL as a reference point to make it work. It is really simple at first glance but apparently Antem.NET�s DLL is not precompiled first. Make sure that you compile the project carefully as the DLL could get extracted in different places.

It is already an established problem in Ajax that developers would still need to develop almost two types of applications if they wanted to build an online application good for Mozilla and Internet Explorer. Because of this struggle, developers would have to build almost two different applications that will require a lot more than the usual time for application development. The end result however, is well worth it. A highly efficient Ajax based application does not only provide eye catching features but could easily provide a highly effective application with processing speed that almost rivals any simple web-based application. Transmitting only the data needed in the application for Ajax has lessened the bandwidth requirements for an Ajax based application.

PageFlakes.com has some of the most amazing feature that you cannot find in most websites: a widget container. Any HTML code that you have could be easily loaded through the container provided by Pageflakes.com. Although there are already tons of widgets in their website, you can easily create one of your own. For example, the embed code in YouTube.com could easily be applied in the codes that you have. Codes that could be integrated in MySpace.com such as simple casual games could also be applied in the widget container. As a developer, you can also offer a widget container in your website so that users could upload an application through an embedded code from a different website.

A very smart practice in coding is to test if the function will have the ability to perform in a particular browser. This is especially true in Ajax-based websites as developers have to face constant browser incompatibilities. Objects could easily be a problem when everything is in place for a particular browser but it will just falter since development of the program has not considered other browsers.

Planning to develop an efficient Ajax based application is easier with Prototype.js. This framework was developed specifically to simplify almost any Ajax based function. It is MIT licensed framework could easily be integrated to other frameworks. To start using the framework it has to be referenced first in your webpage. The following code is used to activate prototype.js. Usually this is referenced in an HTML webpage

MooTools is an open source JavaScript framework that evolved from the simple function called moo.fx. The developers of moo.fx have slowly expanded this simple function into a fully functional framework. As of this writing, the framework is on its 1.2.0 version and has been enjoying a good following along with other JavaScript frameworks. MooTools is a lightweight framework. But do not think MooTools is another lightweight framework that would eventually stack-up. This framework is as lean as they could be. Instead of stacking up the functions and lines, MooTools divide the codes by developing functions in small code bases.

Ajax is still going strong and the hype will never go down unless a new and a better technique is coming up. So far, what we have seen are variation of Ajax � FJAX, AHAX and SAJAX. Although they are innovation by themselves, we cannot help but thinking that these innovations happened because of Ajax. We just have to wait a little bit for the next big thing. For now we have to work a little bit better for Ajax�s development. In this state, the developers still has a lot of things to understand to build a highly efficient Ajax based website. There are so many pitfalls in Ajax and one flaw will mean an unsecured website open for all hackers to exploit.

Today we will take a look at a few AjaxControlToolkit tricks. If you have been working with ASP.NET long enough you know how important this function is to your Ajax based application. In fact, I have been looking online and most of the things I see related to the latest ASP.NET release are concerns regarding AjaxControlToolkit. Without further ado � here they are:

Since Ajax has become the focus of today�s web and application development. A lot of tools have been developed to cater to this programming technique. Although it has been dubbed to be a very challenging technique to master, it all goes down to three languages to build an efficient Ajax website: JavaScript, HTML and XML. Some have preferred to use JSON instead of XML but an efficient mark-up language is all that Ajax needs to perform well. The efficiency it brings is almost second to none and the interface an Ajax application could do is beyond par.

When Ajax was introduced to the early and experienced developers, only JavaScript developers rejoiced because that is the main programming language of Ajax. Others who wanted to jump in the Ajax bandwagon would just have to study the language from the scratch. Among the developers, those who already knew Java were struggling to cope up. Not that they do not know the language but their knowledge are just in the gateway to know something but not everything. They were forced to leave Java and move to JavaScript just to use Ajax.

Undoubtedly, XMLHttpRequest is the most important function in Ajax. With this function, developers could easily transfer XML files from the client to server. XMLHttpRequest can single-handedly transform your application from a simple website to an Ajax based website. Its asynchronous function makes Ajax one of the coolest website and application technique today. Unfortunately, some developers have used it rather more than they should. Of course when a good thing is overused, it becomes really bad. The case of XMLHttpRequest is no different. When the function is overused it tends to overlap over some of the important things a website should have.

In this tutorial I will show you how to create simple AJAX file upload system using PHP and JavaScript.

Even with all the flaws that we will find in an Ajax based website, there are security measures that we could do to ensure security in our website. Before we go to different security measures, let us first note one of the biggest problems in an Ajax based website and application: Source Code Availability. Some call it �Overly Granular Server API� referring to the API built from the server which provides little to nothing in terms of security. Almost every hack that I have seen related to Ajax stems from this security flaw. In simple words, the biggest problem in Ajax is the availability of source code even to regular users.